Chamber and committees

The only information held relates to medical staff recruited into NHSScotland detailing if their qualification was obtained outwith the European Economic Area (EEA) and this was broken down each year since 1999. This information has already been provided in the answer to question S2W-19952 on 2 November 2005.

Most recent figures held by the Royal College of Nursing to September 2004 identified that almost 1,000 whole-time equivalent internationally qualified nurses from outwith the EEA were employed in Scotland’s health care system. This represents 2% of the national nursing workforce, 80% of whom are employed in the independent sector.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Targeted international recruitment of nurses by NHSScotland has been within ethical guidelines and has been kept to a minimum with less than 200 nurses actively recruited from abroad since 2002. Those recruitment agencies used had all registered to comply with the Code of Practice.

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

As part of the initial scoping exercise for monitoring compliance of the Code of Practice for international recruitment of health care professionals, data will be requested from NHSScotland boards on a quarterly basis commencing in December 2005 and will include recruitment of temporary professional health care workers from overseas.

It is most likely that health care professionals from developing countries working in NHSScotland will have applied for positions personally and should be considered for employment if they are suitably qualified. It should also be noted that such individuals are at liberty to improve their position in society.

Other than recruitment of nurses from overseas, information on international recruitment by NHSScotland of other health care professional groups is not held centrally. It will be, however, be requested quarterly from NHSScotland boards as part of the Scottish Executive’s monitoring role on compliance of the Code of Practice.

NHSScotland has not actively recruited any international nurses from developing countries and in the few instances it has recruited nurses from abroad, it has not used any recruitment agencies based outwith the UK.

An expert working group is currently considering a national model to support “supervised practice” for Internationally Qualified Nurses and will be reporting its recommendations to me shortly. This group includes representation from the independent health care sector such as the Care Commission and Care Scotland and several Higher Education Establishments who also engage with this sector. The Code of Practice and its underlying principles have been discussed and agreed with this group in terms of ethical and efficient recruitment practices and ensuring that active recruitment does not take place in developing countries.

(a) General Practitioners

General practitioners are independentcontractors and not directly employed by the NHS. They receive payments in returnfor the range of services that they provide to patients. These payments enable GPsto run their practices and take an income. Therefore no figures are available forthe income of general practitioners.

I refer you to the answer toquestion S2W-18731 on 29 September 2005 for average gross payments under the new GMS Contract.

The Doctors and Dentists ReviewBody calculated the average net income for general practitioners across the UK at£46,031 in 1997. The average net income for 2004-05, the first year following theintroduction of the new GMS contract will not be available until all superannuationreturns from GPs have been assessed in the first half of next year.

(b) Consultants

Information on the average remunerationof consultants from 1997 is not held centrally, however consultant pay scales at1 April 1997 ranged from a minimum of £43,165 to a maximum of £ 55,705.

I refer you to the answer toquestion S2W-18733 on 14 September 2005 for consultants average gross remuneration under thenew contract.

The new consultant contract recognisesthe importance of recruiting and retaining skilled staff, and although pay is notthe sole determinant on these issues it is an important element. It is also acknowledgedthat much of the increased remuneration provided to consultants under the new contractis quite rightly recognising out of hours and on call commitments that were simplynot being paid before.